Electron-beam induced durable immobilization of g-C3N4 onto cotton fabric for visible-light photocatalytic purification

The development of immobilized photocatalysts on flexible materials is an attractive method for addressing catalyst recovery and agglomeration problems in water purification. Herein, a durable immobilization strategy was developed to fabricate photocatalytic cotton fabrics with graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) by cross-linking solid N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) via electron beam (EB) irradiation. The g-C3N4 was anchored onto the cotton by MBA through cross-linked network, code as g-C3N4-Cot. The g-C3N4-Cot exhibited excellent photocatalytic degradation activity for ofloxacin (OFX) after 60 accelerated laundering cycles. At the same time, the coated g-C3N4 and cross-linked MBA could protect the surface of cotton cellulose from the destruction of radicals. Even after 60 min of ultrasonic treatment, the mass fraction of g-C3N4 leached from g-C3N4 -Cot-1 was only 5 wt%. The immobilized g-C3N4 photocatalytic coating can be also applicable for the degradation of other typical organic contaminants. Furthermore, the center dot O-2(-) species played critical role during the degradation process. Hence, EB cross-linking provides an alternative method for constructing efficient and stable photocatalytic materials, which have great potential for application in wastewater purification. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

The study presents a method for immobilizing graphitic carbon nitride onto cotton fabric using electron beam irradiation, resulting in a durable photocatalytic coating with excellent degradation activity. The immobilized coating remained stable even after multiple laundering cycles.